Nate Robinson Dunk Or How To Increase Vertical Jump

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You may know the small Boston Celtics guard Nate Robinson as the human spring. In fact, the 5’7″ guard won the NBA slam dunk contest in 2006 against top dunkers like Josh Smith and Andre Igoudala. In his most memorable dunk of the night, he jumped over 1986 champion Spud Webb, and received a perfect 50-point score for the dunk. He also won the contest in 2009 – against Dwight Howard – and this year (2010) to become the first three-time NBA Slam Dunk champion!

Nate’s monster-block against the 7’6″ Center Yao Ming is a YouTube-classic already. So, it’s obvious the guy got some hoops. Actually he has a vertical leap of 43.5 inches!

“First time I touched a backboard, I was 12. I touched the rim when I was 13, and when I was 14, I finally could dunk.” – Nate Robinson

Although Nate could dunk at that young age already, it took him some hard training to reach his current vertical leap. After he left college in 2005 he completed a special

4 days a week, one hour a day workout.

His workout consisted of:

Day 1 (Monday):

o Jump rope. An excellent exercise for increasing foot speed. (400 jumps)

o Sprint-and-drop. Run the width of a basketball court, drop, and do ten push-ups. (10 sprints)

o Seated figure eight. Sit on a stability ball holding a ten-pound medicine ball in front of you. Your elbows should be tight by your sides. Slowly make a figure-eight motion with the ball, moving your lower body as little as possible. (15 figure eights, then 15 in the opposite direction)

o Leg curl (2 sets of 10)

o Incline chest press (2 sets of 10)

o Standing cable fly (2 sets of 10)

o Standing dumbbell curl Curl one arm, then the other, for one rep. (2 sets of 10)

o Single-arm triceps extension From a seated position, with the weight behind your head (not behind your shoulder), extend your arm until it’s pointing straight up. (2 sets of 10 with each arm)

Day 2 (Tuesday):

o Jump rope (400 jumps)

o High knee-raise sprint Sprint the length of a basketball court staying on your toes and lifting your knees as high as possible. (20 sprints)